Orchid Plant Thief

Vanda Orchid

Plants of monopodial growth, like Vanda, Renanthera, and Angraecum, with the new growth appearing continuously from the top or crown, will not divide so readily. The only method of propagation for them, other than seed growing, is to cut off the top of the plant below several of the husky aerial roots. On being potted, the top part may take root and become a new plant. It is a risky practice, however, and is not especially recommended to amateurs unless for some reason the crown of the plant has become damaged and appears dead. When the top is cut off or injured in this fashion the bottom part will probably develop adventitious plants. This type of plant is a slow grower and needs to be very large before flowering, so that any kind of propagation is a slow and tedious process at best.

Phalaenopsis, while differing from Vanda in that it is stemless, is also of monopodial growth and not divisible. It will occasionally throw adventitious plants from the nodes of the flower stem. Experiments have shown that it is possible, by wrapping the flower node in damp Osmunda and keeping it warm and damp, to force the growth of a new plant.

Dendrobium, of sympodial growth, will put forth little plant-lets, complete with bulb and roots, at the slightest provocation. These plantlets develop from the cane-like flower stems. If the beginner keeps his Dendrobiums, especially the deciduous type, too warm and moist during the dormant season they will waste their strength in plantlets and fail to bloom. Many commercial growers pick the entire cane on flowering and, after cutting off the blooms, lay the canes on damp, warm sand or gravel to allow plantlets to develop from the dormant eyes. Dendrobiums are easily divided or grown from seed.